A doctor who treated royalty and film stars was yesterday found guilty by the General Medical Council of serious professional misconduct and handed a reprimand, after admitting forging his ex-wife's signature to cash an insurance policy.

Alun Jones, who fell into "financial problems" when his shopaholic wife begged his patients for thousands of pounds, had previously been cleared by the GMC's professional misconduct committee of failing to protect their best interests.

After continuing deliberations in relation to a police caution he received for forging the signature, the disciplinary committee found his actions to be "dishonest, inappropriate and a breach of the trust which the public are entitled to expect".

Rani Atma, who headed the panel, told him: "Trust is essential to the relationship between patient and doctors, and the public have confidence that doctors will tell the truth."

The GP, who ran a private clinic where patients included the Duchess of Kent and Catherine Zeta Jones, was forced to cancel his credit cards and had changed bank accounts five times in three years to curb his wife's over-spending.

He was accused of failing to take adequate steps to prevent his wife, Sofi, 38, from gaining access to private contact details by going through his confidential records. It was alleged she had approached four of his patients and asked for money from them.

After sitting to consider their judgment for three hours on Saturday, the committee found he had done everything he could to restrain her from accessing the confidential information.

The GP had told the panel additional locks were installed at his consulting rooms within the Thames Valley Nuffield hospital in Slough, Berkshire, and his wife was barred.

But his attempt to gain further cash through his ex-wife's insurance policy, although "isolated", was a "significant and serious failure in an unblemished career", and thus he was reprimanded.

Dr Jones, who was suspended from practice in June 1999, received a police caution in November 2000 for forging the signature of his ex-wife to cash an insurance policy.

Adrian Hopkin, defending, told the panel: "It was an action he regrets and is out of character."

Mr Hopkin said his client had been in practice since 1970 and had an exemplary record with around 2,500 patients.

During the hearing Dr Jones described how his wife sneaked into his office at night to steal cheques from drawers to aid her extravagant lifestyle.

Dr Jones said he was shocked when he found she had approached patients for sums of up to £10,000. Press Association